3. 1. COUNTABLE NOUNS
Things you can count in units.
• One apple, two apples, three apples…
• One cookie, two cookies, three cookies…
• One egg, two eggs, three eggs…
• One tomato, two tomatoes, three tomatoes..…
Singular
Plural
4. 2. UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Things you can’t count in units.
• Butter
• Coffee
• Meat
• Sugar
Singular
Plural
Measuring Units and
Quantifiers
5. Groups of uncountable nouns include:
• mass nouns /milk, sugar, wine etc /
• subjects of study /Physics, History, Geography, etc /
• sports /football, cricket, tennis /
• languages /Arabic, French, Chinese /
• diseases / chickenpox, malaria, mist /
• natural phenomena / rain, snow, mist /
• collective nouns /money, furniture, luggage /
• certain other nouns /accommodation, anger, luck /
6. 3. MEASURING UNITS
Both countable and uncountable nouns can be
measured with a MEASURING UNIT.
MEASURING UNITS express an exact amount. That’s
why they are used in recipes.
cup / glass / spoon / bowl
bottle / can / jar / gallon /bag / box
slice / bunch / dozen
pint / quart / liter / kg / pound
11. 4. QUANTIFIERS
Both countable and uncountable nouns can be
measured with a QUANTIFIER.
QUANTIFIERS express an amount that is not exact but
everybody understands it.
a / an / some / any
much / many / a lot of / lots of
a little / a few
how much / how many?
12. A / AN
We use a/an to talk about singular countable nouns.
an egg an applea nut a lemon
13. ANY and its compounds /anyone, anything/
We use any to talk about plural countable nouns and
uncountable nouns (negative and interrogative forms)
There isn’t any cheese.
Is there any cheese?
Has anyone seen Jim today?
There aren’t any bananas.
Are there any bananas?
There isn’t any petrol in the
tank.
14. SOME and its compounds/somebody, someone/
We use some to talk about plural countable nouns and
uncountable nouns
(affirmatives, offerings and requests)